Women’s Health

There are many good reasons for new mothers to breastfeed their infants —studies have shown that babies digest mother’s milk better than formula, and that breast milk can build up babies’ immune systems and protect them from infection, leading to better health overall. Breast milk is full of antibodies and other agents that …

Though they tend to have sex less frequently than their slimmer peers, obese women may be four times more likely to have an unwanted pregnancy, according to findings published in BMJ this week. In a study of more than 12,000 French men and women between the ages of 18 to 69, researchers found that obese women were less likely than

Initial results from an animal study conducted by researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia may shed some light on a question that has perplexed both sexes: why do women often seem to get so much more stressed out than men? In a rat study led by neuroscientist Dr. Rita Valentino, researchers found that females were more

This Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will hear from an expert panel about the merits of, flibanserin, a drug that has been touted as potentially being the female equivalent of Viagra. Yet, an initial FDA review posted online today already indicates that Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of flibanserin,

The governor of the Lombardy province of northern Italy introduced a policy that would offer pregnant women $5,500 (€4,500) not to end their pregnancies, the BBC reports. Under the policy, established by governor Roberto Formigoni, only pregnant women facing severe economic hardship would be eligible for the payment.

New research in mice may be a first step toward a breast cancer vaccine for humans. The findings, published online Sunday and scheduled to run in the June 10 issue of the journal Nature Medicine, found that mice who were genetically engineered to be at high risk for breast cancer were effectively immunized against the disease after being

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed its provisional recommendation from 2009 that the HPV vaccine (Gardasil) against human papillomavirus infection is both safe and effective in males in preventing genital warts.

The HPV vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2006 for use in …

Fifty years since the introduction of the oral birth control pill, it is still the preferred method of contraception for American women, used by 10.7 million women between the ages of 15 and 44. The second most popular method of contraception is female sterilization, with 10.3 million users.

Kimberly-Clark, the company that manufactures Kotex brand pads and tampons as well as Poise and Depend adult incontinence products, has decided to take a more straightforward approach in hawking its wares. Last month Whoopi Goldberg appeared in a TV ad for Poise during the Oscars portraying several famous historical women with the same

A new study published online earlier this week by the British medical journal The Lancet suggests that the number of women dying during pregnancy or childbirth has dropped by more than one third in the past three decades, from half a million annual deaths in 1980 to 343,000 as of 2008. The study, sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates

In spite of physical, sexual or psychological abuse, many women in abusive relationships with men continue to view their partners as dependable, and some describe them as having positive traits such as being affectionate, according to a new study conducted by researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and Adelphi University in

In a study conducted by Dr. Des Powe and colleagues at Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, England and Germany’s Witten University, breast cancer patients treated with beta blockers—medication used to reduce blood pressure by limiting the effects of the hormone epinephrine—had higher survival rates and lower levels of metastatis

For middle-aged women who aren’t counting calories, how much exercise does it take to keep off extra weight? According to a new study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, roughly an hour per day. Though current recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services suggest that a weekly 150